Screaming steaming flaming fajitas for two. Steak, chicken, shrimp, onions, peppers, mushrooms, sautéed, sizzling on a plate, brought to the table, then lit on fire for the grand presentation….. and a grand presentation it was. Flames a foot high. It got everyone’s attention in the restaurant. The flames went out after fifteen seconds. The smoke alarm stopped screaming after about two minutes.
Cortez
Good start on the job in Cortez. New client. Indian cultural center.
Not a bad view from the campground. Cortez is to our rear. Out the left windows, we see the snow covered San Juans north of Durango in the distance. Out the front, we look up at the plateaus of Mesa Verde National Monument. Out the right windows we have the silhouette of the Sleeping Ute. We’ve made a couple forays out through the pinyon/juniper forests in search of the juniper titmouse. Nothing yet. Drove into the monument today for some good cliff dwelling views and white throated swifts swirling in the canyons. Watched packs of ravens riding the rollercoaster updrafts off the cliff faces, bursting up in a group from below the edge, then folding their wings to fall back below the forest and cliff edge until the next ride. It looks fun to be a raven. We like it here.
Plans, what plans?
We wouldn’t have left Friday morning even if the rig had been ready. The weather was too rough. Woke up to rain, with snow and high winds to the west, east, and south of us; and we don’t want to go north. Blue sky in the afternoon, coach done by six, we’re out of there by seven. We didn’t really want to wake up in their parking lot again, so we left. Did the big bend to the east around Denver on the 470 loop. Stopped for the night just south of Colorado Springs; a good start. Driving south on I-25 Saturday morning, we discovered it was blue sky all across Southern Colorado, and the weather permitted a drive west at Walsenburg on highway 160, over La Veta Pass, through Alamosa, Monte Vista, South Fork, over Wolf Creek Pass, through Pagosa Springs, Durango, and into Cortez. All in one day. No big loop south through New Mexico at all. Clear roads all the way.
Plans change
We woke up in a parking lot this morning. Funny the places you’ll wake up when you get a little drunk the night before. Okay. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know we stayed here on purpose at the Freightliner shop to get a couple things fixed. How hard could that be? Well….. two things to fix requires three parts, none of which were in stock today. We’re in the parking lot again tonight. They have all three parts, all from different places, on the way, air freight, and they’ll be here by mid-day tomorrow. After that, we’ll be on our way to Cortez. We won’t make it there in one day of course. It’s a two day drive to get there, but no problem. We’ll still have that half-day cushion…… won’t we?
Plans change
We finished the Bailey job, so we decided to go out to Pawnee Grasslands Thursday and Friday, and get the chestnut collared longspur. But they’re burning patches of the grasslands over the weekend, so that wouldn’t be a good place to stay. We decided to leave early for Cortez, go straight across the high country, spend the night in Grand Junction, and get some work done on the motorhome Friday at a truck place we like there. We want them to look at the dash air and the exhaust brake. A Freightliner shop can do that. Then, since we’re not going out on the Colorado plains to get the longspur, we could loop out through Utah on the way south to Cortez and pick up the juniper titmouse. But there is a winter storm going on in the high country, so no going west. No Utah. No juniper titmouse. Plan C. We’re in the parking lot of a Freightliner repair place out north of Denver just off I-25, plugged into electricity. Tomorrow morning, they start on our coach at 6:45. I’m sure they’ll be done early, After all, how hard could it be to fix the dash air and check the exhaust brake? I figure we’ll be out of here by noon. Then, we’ll go south over Raton while the weather is good, loop around through Santa Fe, and back up to Cortez. We’ll go to Cortez without going west through the mountains. Drive Friday, and Saturday, and have all day Sunday in Cortez, before we start work there Monday. That’s tonight’s plan, anyway.